Popé

Popé (1630-1688) was a Pueblo religious leader who led the Pueblo Revolt in 1680.

Biography
Popé was born in New Mexico in 1630, and he became an animist religious leader. In 1675, he was one of the 47 northern Pueblo religious leaders to be arrested by Juan Francisco Trevino's government for witchcraft, and he was released by the government after the other religious leaders were executed; the government could not handle a Pueblo revolt in addition to wars with the Apache and Navajo. However, he returned to Taos and planned a rebellion, and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 led to the Spanish being forced to flee from New Mexico, not to return for 12 years. Popé proclaimed that the Christian God was dead, and that he was made of rotten wood. In 1681 and 1687, two Spanish efforts to reconquer New Mexico were defeated by Popé's army, and Popé died in 1688. His envisioned Pueblo state became divided and weak, and it fell to Spanish reconquest in 1692.